Tag Archives: West Elm

Last week I posted a waffle for Stacey (you can read it here), who was wondering whether $2300 was too much to pay for this Surya Harlequin rug (she photoshopped it into a picture of her living room).

Based on the feedback she received, Stacey has decided that the Surya is indeed too expensive. Now she has found a West Elm rug that she thinks might do the trick. Here she is to explain:

Thanks for all your input on the Surya Harlequin rug. I have found another rug that I like – the Lourdes Sanchez Swirl Rug — but I am not familiar with West Elm or the quality of their products. It is $679 for a 9×12 as compared to $2000 for the Surya one. It’s clearly more casual, which I’m okay with, but do y’all recommend West Elm rugs? Is the quality good even though the price is great? Thanks!

Here are some pics of the Swirl Rug:

West Elm

West Elm

So what do you think, Waffler readers? Can anyone speak to the quality of West Elm rugs? And what do you think of the style?

Like this:

If you’re looking at this picture of my kitchen and having deja vu, it’s okay: you’ve seen it before. A few months ago I was waffling about whether to replace my current craigslist counter stools. I actually like these stools and the pop of color they provide. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of how they bang into the wooden counter supports and make it looks like a beaver went to town on them.

With a hopeful heart I drove to Seattle’s brand spanking new West Elm store. Bad news: the store only carries the taller bar stools and the counter stools would take 6 weeks to arrive. Good news: the counter stools were on sale. Bad news: when they arrived a few days ago and we put them together, one of the stools was defective. Good news: West Elm will pick up the defective stool and drop off a new one, free of charge.

Here’s the Klismos stool on the left and our old metal and blue leather one on the right:

So are you waiting for the actual waffle? Well, here’s the thing: I think the Klismos stools might just be too darn dark. I love their simple and elegant shape, but I’m worried that they just push the dark wood tones quota over the limit.

But what do you think? Are you pro-Klismos or pro-blue or pro-something-totally-new?

Psst — if you’re pro-something-totally-new, this is what the rest of the kitchen area looks like so you know what you’re dealing with in terms of an overall look:

Like this:

Did you know that there’s a National Make Your Bed Day, at least according to this list? Actually, a kick in the pants to make the bed makes sense, given that over 55% of readers responded “not very often” and “almost never” to my query about how frequently the bed gets made.

And what did Holiday decide to do? Here’s her response: I kept it. It makes me smile and I have no energy (or budget) to find anything else. Personally, I’m glad — I love this rug’s color and playfulness.

In fabric news, I received lots of good feedback on which fabric to adhere to a roller shade in my newly painted laundry room. 39% voted for Marimekko’s Unikko fabric.

Marinmekko Unikko pattern

While I really like this pattern, I fear it might be a bit too dark so I opted for the second most popular choice — the Dandelion pattern — which received 29% of the vote. The roller blind arrived today and the fabric should be here soon. Wish me luck with the DIYing!

Dandelion pattern

And finally, when I asked what your dream office would look like, “Light Filled” came in first with 31% of the vote. I find this tree house like office pretty dreamy as well, though I wonder if its’ loveliness might make it hard to get much work done in it…

Hope you’re having a good Friday and enjoying ‘The Day the Music Died Day’! (Really, check out this list).

These counter stools were one of the first items I bought when we moved into our current house three years ago. After waffling endlessly, I gave up and bought these for $40 on Craigslist. So why am I holding a grudge against an inanimate object? Well just look at how that circular metal piece is gouging out the wood in the counter post.

I’ve tried fixing the holes with wood filler and every kind of stain touch-up pens Home Depot offers, but no luck. Every few weeks holes show up again — what can I say, my kids are wigglers and the stools just seem to get banged into the wood every time they sit on them.

Now you might think that once I bought these stools I moved on to bigger and better waffles. While that’s partly true, I’ve been keeping a look out for attractive, not-going-to-break-the-bank replacement stools. I think I might have found them in these West Elm Klismos stools.

I love how simple and unfussy they are, while the arch still gives them some visual interest. And while there’s still a circular piece at the base, I’m hoping that because the piece itself is flat it won’t cause the same kind of gouging as our metal, tube-like stools do. A single or straight leg might work even better, but boy do I like the look of these stools.

The Klismos come in white and red, but white seems ridiculous with kids (plus food) and I’m just not feeling the red. I don’t mind the chocolate color — but would that be too much brown in the kitchen? Or maybe I could lacquer them in a happy color…

I get totally annoyed when stores start putting up Christmas decorations the day after Halloween, but when furniture companies release their spring lines of furniture and accessories the last week of Decemmber? Well, I have no problem with that. In fact, I really look forward to it. Part of it is that I’m a design junkie and part of it is that “spring furniture” brings to mind the idea of sunlight…something I crave here in Seattle.

Here are some of the items I’m digging from the new catalogs. First up are some great striped items from West Elm, like the Gallery Stripe Duvet and Sham:

It’s doubtful that I’ll end up buying any of these items, but I get a kick out of (virtual) window shopping. What new items that have caught your eye? To let me know or to send a waffle, just click on the button below.

Do you think tens of thousands of years ago cave women used to turn to their cave partners and say, “Honey, I’m so sick of all the kids’ stuff. Can’t our cave be stylish and kid-friendly?”

Okay, maybe not. But Sarah and her husband — parents to a four-year-old and 6-month-old — are struggling with this question as they search for an area rug for their living room, the place where their kids play the most (see above). More specifically, they are trying to decide whether to get an area rug they love, knowing it will get yucky from baby-ness or find something they are less thrilled by but will hold up well. And then there’s the problem of color. Sarah explains,

“too light and it will look dirty, but not too dark since we have dark furniture. Or should we go with a crazy color? We’re not afraid of color by any means, but we don’t want a fun house theme.”